


Gun in the Sun

by lyraorion



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Beach Vacation, Fluff, Friendship, Other, Polyamorous relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 19:18:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4071535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyraorion/pseuds/lyraorion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard and the rest of the Normandy crew take a little quality time for themselves with a beach vacation</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gun in the Sun

**Author's Note:**

> Birthday gift for tumblr user alfheimr last year!
> 
> also the title's supposed to be a pun on "Fun in the Sun" but it just ended up terrible. my bad.

Shepard decided that whoever approved her request for her crew to get some long and well-deserved shore leave, she’d have to write them a personal thank you note. For the person who decided three weeks of vacation at the beach was a good idea? She’d have to send them a personal gift basket. Maybe one with some nice tropical fruit and some seashells, too.

 

Three days into their vacation and the Normandy crew had already comfortably settled into the hotel. The staff had been absolutely excited to meet the intergalactically famous crew, but thankfully they’d kept their boundaries and had been nothing but polite and helpful. It was a nice change of pace, and Shepard had only had to sign autographs twice.

 

The first two nights had been a bit of a hassle as room situations were sorted out. It was almost unanimously decided that Grunt and Wrex sharing a room would have been a _bad idea._ Though the two got along just fine, Shepard had a feeling that the two krogan and the poor furniture would not. James had offered to room with Grunt instead, but Shepard quickly vetoed that idea too until Steve and Jacob offered to let Grunt stay in theirs. And thus, the imminent property damage was solved. 

 

Then it was discovered that Liara snored like a chainsaw (which Kasumi was very much unhappy about), so she volunteered to share rooms with Zaeed and Ashley, thus sparing the rest of the crew of sleepless nights from having to share with the three snoring crewmates. 

 

Thankfully, the rest of the crew had been fine with their room situations, sparing Shepard from more rearrangement headaches and allowing everyone to enjoy their vacation in style. With everyone pretty much free to come and go and do whatever the pleased, it was sure to be one of the best vacations they’d had.

 

* * *

 

That morning, Shepard, Tali, and Garrus decided to check out the beach. Carrying their towels, a picnic basket of snacks, and a surfboard under Shepard’s arm, the three of them made their way down toward the gate by the pool which led down to the shore.

 

“Hey, you going down to the beach too?” James called to the three of them from the pool, where he was sitting on an inner tube. Nearby him, Jack raised a hand in greeting, but otherwise didn’t move from where she was relaxing on an inflatable raft. 

 

“Yep! Gonna try my hand at surfing, see how I do,” Shepard said, holding up the surfboard with a huge grin on her face. Behind her, Garrus looked at the board with an odd mix of fascination and horror on his faceplates. Tali caught the look and started to chuckle, but Shepard didn’t appear to notice.

 

James laughed and tossed a bottle of sunblock toward her, before slowly paddling his way toward Jack’s raft. “If you see Gabby, give her that for me will you? Ken asked me to take it to her since she forgot it, but I’m a little occupied at the moment.”

 

Shepard caught the bottle and gave him a confused look. “Occupied? James, you’re just floating there-”

 

She stopped and stared as James grabbed the squirty nozzle of the inner tube and aimed it at Jack, shooting her in the back of the head with water. Jack let out an angry yelp, before pushing James into the water with a biotic push. The trio on the side of the pool snickered and quickly hurried out the gate to avoid getting in the line of fire, James’ laughter and Jack’s yelling following them as they made their way down to the beach.

 

After a short trip of walking, they arrived on the soft sandy beach, staring at the waves rippling up onto the shoreline. They paused to take in the side of the ocean stretching in front of them, the sun reflecting off the sparkling waves. “It’s gorgeous,” Tali said in awe, wiggling her toes in the sand. “What’re you going to do first?”

 

Shepard set the picnic basket down and took a firmer grip on her surfboard. “I’m gonna check out the waves,” she said with a grin, before hurrying off toward the water.

 

Tali watched her run off and jump into the water before laughing. “Well then, that didn’t take her long.” She set down the blankets and got them settled before starting toward the water herself. “Come on, Garrus! Let’s go watch, check out the water a bit.”

 

Garrus’s mandibles quivered in displeasure. “Yeah, uh, that water thing? We don’t get along too well,” he protested.

 

Tali just shook her head and tugged on his hand, pulling him along. “I know, I know, you big baby. We’re not going to go in all the way, just splash around a bit in the shallower areas. It’d probably mess with my suit anyway if we went too deep,” she said. Garrus grumbled but nodded, before following her into the waves.

 

Hours later with several failed attempts at surfing (and a few successful!), Shepard came back to the shore, planted the surfboard up in the sand, and flopped down with a tired smile next to where Garrus and Tali were eating. “How’d I look out there?” she asked, reaching into the basket to grab a sandwich for herself.

 

“For falling off about eighty percent of the time, not too bad,” Garrus chuckled, before wincing when Shepard punched him in the arm. “Hey, that was a compliment!”

 

Shepard just smirked before biting into her sandwich. “So what’d you two do while I was out there?” she asked after she swallowed.

 

Tali took a sip of juice through a straw from a bright purple bottle before setting it down and pointing toward an absolutely gigantic sand castle about fifty yards away. “We splashed around for a while until we saw Miranda working on that over there. We went over and joined her for a bit, and I’m pretty sure part of that was definitely held up with biotics,” she chuckled.

 

Shepard whistled a little in surprise, before relaxing back and resting her head in Tali’s lap. “Sounds like a fun time,” she said, closing her eyes when Tali ran a hand through her hair.

 

“It was,” Garrus agreed, leaning back onto his elbows and basking in the sun. “Mordin came by at one point to show off the shells he’d found along the shoreline. He headed back after a while to make sure none of them were accidentally damaged, but I think he plans on showing you tonight.”

 

“Mmm, I’m glad he found some he liked. He’s always talking about starting up a collection,” Shepard said softly.

 

The three of them sat there quietly, enjoying the warmth and the sunlight as the sun lowered into the sky. By early evening, the sun had cast an orangey hue to the beach, the shadows of trees and sand stretching further over the ground. “Hey Garrus?” Shepard broke the silence after a while, turning her head toward the dozing turian. “I know we didn’t bring any guns but… how do you feel about a little competition?” she asked, a smirk growing on her face.

 

Garrus raised a browplate, looking at her suspiciously. “I’m interested… What kind of competition are you talking?”

 

“Not exactly a shooting competition, but still a challenge of accuracy. Tali, do you have your omnitool on you?” she asked.

 

“Okay, I know that look on your face,” Tali said with a laugh. “This can’t be good… but what is it?”

 

Shepard sat up with a stretch. “Well… I was thinking you could make one of those combat drones of yours, and have it float around as a moving obstacle. Garrus and I would try and hit it, like with thrown rocks maybe. First to miss loses?” she suggested, glancing over at Garrus with a smirk.

 

“You want a competition to see who can hit drones with _rocks?_ ”

 

“That sounds like you’re chickening out on me. Afraid of losing?” she said, smirk turning into a full-blown grin. 

 

“What does that even…? No, I’m not afraid of losing. But _rocks?_ Can’t we do something better than that?” Garrus asked, giving Shepard an amused look.

 

“Well it’s not like I brought a–” Shepard started, before cutting herself off as Garrus reached into the picnic basket and pulled out a pistol. “… I feel like I should be surprised, but I’m really not.”

 

“You never know what could happen, even on vacation. Remember what happened last time we got shore leave?” reminded Garrus, before standing up and brushing the sand off him. He offered a hand to Shepard, who quickly pulled herself up.

 

“I’m gonna stay down here where it’s comfortable,” Tali called out, before activating her omnitool and sending out a drone to follow them. “It’s set to register impacts, so if it misses I’ll let you know.”

 

“Sounds good to me. All right, Garrus, you first,” Shepard said.

 

The drone started zipping through the air, and Garrus took aim with the pistol. “Can’t say I’m too used to using one of these over something bigger,” he admitted, before lining up the shot and firing. Sparks shot off the drone, and he handed the gun to Shepard with a whistle. “You see that? See how good that was? All right, try and beat _that_ beautiful shot.”

 

Shepard snorted and raised gun up, lining the drone up in her sights. “Watch out, Vakarian,” she said, squeezing the trigger. The drone sparked and and shuddered in the air, flickering slightly before solidifying once more. “Now that’s how a real infiltrator does it.”

 

“Yeah yeah yeah,” Garrus said with a mandible twitch, reaching out for the gun once more. Shepard simply handed it over with a grin, and the two of them could hear Tali chuckling from her comfortable spot further up the beach. Garrus raised the pistol and took aim at the drone flitting around in the air, before lining up the shot and squeezing a trigger with an echoing bang.

 

The crack of the gun rang out, but the drone barely shuddered and didn’t lose track of its movement path at all. Shepard started chuckling as Garrus quickly turned around, waving to Tali before pointing at the still floating drone. “That hit, right? It totally it!”

 

Tali flipped open her omni-tool and check. “Yeah, a little bit!” she shouted back. “You just barely scraped it, though.”

 

“Looks like you need to step up your game, work on your aim, Garrus,” Shepard lightly teased, taking the gun from his hand once more. Garrus let out a deep hum and snorted, and Shepard just shook her head and smiled. 

 

The drone started to pick up pace, flitting around close to the water’s surface before flying high into the air, and it was a little hard to see against the backdrop of the golden evening sky. Following its movements quickly, Shepard lined up the sights and centered it squarely between the pistol’s sights. She breathed out slowly, slowly squeezed the trigger…

 

The bullet pierced entirely through the drone, the hardlight form weakened from the previous shots. The light flickered and fell to the water surface, before fading out entirely. Shepard stared at were the drone previously was, a huge grin splitting over her face. Glancing next to her, she saw Garrus’ face scrunched into the most disgruntled scowl she’d ever seen. She started chuckling, before she patted Garrus on the shoulder and started walking back toward Tali.

 

Garrus quickly followed her, doing his best to stomp across the sand. “Does that count? Neither of us ever missed, that totally didn’t count as a final shot.”

 

“I dunno, Garrus,” Tali started, chuckling as she tapped her omnitool. “You kinda skimmed that last shot… and she _did_ completely obliterate it. I think she won this one.”

 

Shepard laughed and leaned up to kiss his cheekplate, before giving his shoulder a pat and sitting down next to Tali. “Well, it was more of a technicality since there was no drone anymore.”

 

“Shhh, let him mope,” Tali not-subtley whispered, and Shepard started snickering. 

 

Garrus flopped down beside them with a grumble, and Tali reached over and squeezed his hand. Garrus shrugged. “I’m not moping, she won fair. She does almost every time, anyway,” he acknowledged, before turning back toward the two of them with a small smile.

 

“True,” Tali agreed. “Well… Except that one time we decided to try hover cart racing that one day, when she managed to do a barrel roll when she hit the curb-” 

 

Garrus laughed. “Or that time we went dancing and she got too wild on the dance floor and ended up elbowing a batarian in the face, gave him two black eyes-” 

 

“Oh god no, not these again,” Shepard groaned, covering her face and rapidly flushing cheeks.

 

“All right, fine,” Tali laughed, “I’m done embarrassing the both of you.”

 

“Oh, good, I’m glad,” Garrus quipped, before Tali nudged him hard with her elbow, causing him to laugh. “So, should we head back then?”

 

“Nah,” Shepard said softly, “Not yet. I want to watch the sunset first.” She adjusted herself and got closer to Tali, leaning against the quarian sandwiched in the middle. Garrus adjusted on the other side, before the three of them linked hands and leaned back into the sand to watch the sun sink below the horizon. 


End file.
